Opinion
February 20, 1962
Present — Bergan, P.J., Coon, Herlihy, Reynolds and Taylor, JJ.
Appeal by employer and carrier from an award of disability compensation. Appellants raise the questions of accident and causal relation. Claimant was employed as a saleslady, and she testified that on July 21, 1958, she suffered a "horrible pain" while picking up a box from the basement floor of the employer's premises. She reported the incident immediately thereafter to her superior, who testified that she appeared to be in tears and said she had hurt herself while lifting a box. She was examined by a doctor the same night, and eventually, on August 27, 1958, a herniated disc was surgically removed from claimant's spine. Appellants seem to rely upon the contention that claimant did not give a history of accident to some of the doctors and that no history of accident appears in the hospital records, and that claimant did give a history of previous difficulty with her back. The fact that claimant did not tell some doctors of the box-lifting incident, or that they did not write it down, establishes nothing. There is positive testimony that claimant did sustain an accident, and clear medical testimony that the accident caused the disc condition, and even assuming prior difficulty with her back, the doctor testified that the accident "was sufficient to have caused it — the straw that broke the camel's back, pushed the disc completely out of place and started at that time to become markedly symptomatic." Substantial evidence supports both the finding of accident and causal relation. Award unanimously affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board.